Dec200906

We’re updating the beta site (http://beta.blip.fm) with some huge new features. Details to come after we get the site back online… hang in there, you’re going to like what you see!

All of these features will be on the beta site while we work out all the bugs. We’ll be acknowledging the people who help us squash the bugs, so make sure to send us your feedback!

#1: The TagTuner
This is a big deal in terms of music and DJ discovery. Now instead of sifting through all the noise on the “All Blips” page we make it easy to tune into the music that you want to hear. You are presented with a tag cloud of recent trending topics (broken down into hashtags, artists, and genres). When you select tags, only blips that match those categories will filter through to your blipstream. If you want to hear U2, Madonna and Acid Jazz right now, you got it. Nobody else does this. In fact, we have a patent pending on the concept.

#2: Badges
We’ve been seeing a ton of people do extraordinary things on Blip.fm. Some people find the best music before anyone else, others know how to work the crowd, some DJs get props from tens of thousands of listeners, then there’s the guys that blip all day everyday. We wanted to do something to let you guys show off a bit. After this update, you’ll see a box in the right column with the different badges that you can earn for reaching certain achievements. Some of them are pretty easy to get, others will take a bit more work. We plan to keep coming up with new badges as time goes on, so if you have any ideas for something awesome, send it our way.

NOTE: We’re going to reset these badges once we push all these updates to the main site, so that everyone can start out on a level playing field. Don’t worry though, for helping us work out the kinks you’re going to get something that can’t be got otherwise.

#3: DJ Quick Add/Props
Add any DJ to your favorites or give them props without having to go to their profile page. This is something we’ve had lots of requests for.

#4: Block DJ
Prevent a DJ from sending you @replies and adding you as a favorite DJ. You’ll never see their blips in your personalized blipstream again.

#5: Weekly Update Emails
This one you might not get to see for a little while, until we push the stuff to the main site, but it’s rad. Every week we’ll send you an email with the activity that’s happened over the past seven days (who’s given you props, reblips, new listeners, etc.).

#6: Faster Page Loads
We’re going to spend the next few weeks trying to get your pages loading and playing music super fast. This should be incremental if you use the beta site, so it should keep getting faster as we tweak things.

-ian

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32 Comments

how i wish i could be one of those could win that but unfortunately my songs are all Christians and low and soft one…i love this site very much…and i am always praying for the one who moderate this site…God bless you all….

ryan on December 6th, 2009

SpiritbearNY on December 6th, 2009

The one thing I wish blip would do is make it possible to switch pages and not lose the song we are listening to. For instance, if I am blipping a song, and want to check my playlist, or switch to another view, I lose the song I’m listening to. It drives me nuts to have to wait for a song to end before changing my page view to ‘my faves’ or ‘all’ or whatever. Sometimes I just want to see what everyone is blipping while my song plays, or go back to see what my fave dj’s are playing. But I can’t.

Really dig the TagTuner and the idea with the Badges! Also very nice to read that you bother about faster page loads. I figure there’s scope for optimizations
I like http://www.webpagetest.org for analysis.

I believe I found a bug. When I give 1 prob in the beta site it costs 2 credits.

Looks like promising features! The tag Tuner is a true Fantastic feature, one that I’ve missed from the first day I started with Blip.

Although limiting yourself to a certain tag will also prevent you from discovering gems in other genres by likeminded Dj’s, it will definitely be interesting to see the Blips in such a spezialized tag.

I’m curious how early of an adopter you must be to get the early adopter badge?

RightNowRadio on December 7th, 2009

BLIP BETA make the BADGES less competitive: ‘Openness’ for those listening to as many DJs as they have listeners, ‘Generosity’ for DJs who prop widely

RightNowRadio on December 7th, 2009

Ok I just noticed you have a big spender badge - excellent, but I still propose an ‘openness’ badge, for those listening to as many DJs as they have listeners, surely a DJ who has 200 listeners and listens to 200 is more ‘connected’ then a DJ with 400 listeners who is only listening to 10 other DJs

@Rightnowradio on December 7th, 2009

Many DJs reblip other DJs as away of awarding props when they are out of props to give. It would be good to see the practice of reblipping rewarded in much the same way as you are rewarding big spenders, i.e. reward generosity whenever you can, I think its part of your own philosophy

CargoCulte on December 8th, 2009

The Add to Favorites button is missing in the beta release. You can add by using the drop down, but it’s nice to have the button so one can see if that person has been added to favorites.

Curious to know how one can see all the props they’ve given other DJs each day.

Anyone know how to determine what props you’ve given to others?

Thanks for your help!

Symcale on December 14th, 2009

This looks like it will be great! I like the tag tuner especially.

I wish there were a way to describe your station so that people who come on your page can see at a glance what sort of music they’ll hear there, rather than having to look through a list of songs. Maybe even be able to attach tags to the station, not just the songs, in a way that could be searchable.

these badges are silly and creating, I fear, a new breed of blippage that is just plain bad. Blips should be for good music, not for earning a badge for non-stop blipping or broadcasting senselessly to Twitter or Facebook. I have seen nice blip DJs turn into fiends these past weeks and that have lost all sight of the purpose that I saw them on blip in the first place. No longer does there seem to be an environment of fun and music, but rather one of competition and insanity.

these badges are silly and creating, I fear, a new breed of blippage that is just plain bad. Blips should be for good music, not for earning a badge for non-stop blipping or broadcasting senselessly to Twitter or Facebook. I have seen nice blip DJs turn into fiends these past weeks that have lost all sight of the purpose that I saw them on blip in the first place. No longer does there seem to be an environment of fun and music, but rather one of competition and insanity.

Joe_W on January 4th, 2010

I second SpiritbearNY’s comment below. I really like this site and hope you all will add this feature — its frustrating to lose the song I’m listening to as soon as I navigate away from the page linking that particular song. I’d love to keep listening while I’m searching for my next blips, or scrolling through everyone elses’. Reverbnation.com and LaLa.com have found neat ways around this problem, letting the music go on uninterrupted while users surf. Any chance of this feature being added to blip?

>>> SpiritbearNY on December 6th, 2009 said:

The one thing I wish blip would do is make it possible to switch pages and not lose the song we are listening to. For instance, if I am blipping a song, and want to check my playlist, or switch to another view, I lose the song I’m listening to. It drives me nuts to have to wait for a song to end before changing my page view to ‘my faves’ or ‘all’ or whatever. Sometimes I just want to see what everyone is blipping while my song plays, or go back to see what my fave dj’s are playing. But I can’t.

digitpt on January 8th, 2010

Hi,
I don’t receive anymore emails from blip.fm when someone gives Props, reply or reblip . My profile settings is ok. Is anyone having the same problem?
Blipper greetings

Kasvestate on January 12th, 2010

I agree with SpiritbearNY with the continuous play of a song while surfing through blip, I’ve been waiting for this feature for quite sometime but i know you guys will get it down soon. Although i have to say I am extremely excited with the new features and blown away by the tag turner concept, amazing! Much love!

AnotherBlipperInTokyo on January 12th, 2010

@SpiritbearNY on December 6th, 2009
@Joe_W on January 4th, 2010
@Kasvestate on January 12th, 2010

You can turn off the “automatic page refresh” on the right-hand side of the page, or somewhere else … maybe the “settings” page. I can’t make sure because Blip.fm is undergoing maintenance at the moment. There is, I think, another feature, like “always focus on the song that is currently playing”.

Like someone said: Badges are making Blip.fm become more like World of Warcraft. Lvling ftw!

But yea, I know you guys need to make people use the service more so you get more out of it, but making this the best web music service available (which I must say it is), is what’s going to drive this into unlimited possibilities.

Thanx for all the great work, just keep it close to the heart, not the wallet